I rowed throughout high school & college in Buffalo. We rowed in rough water, and cold water between icebergs, but those were the good old days. Most of our rowing was in fairly protected canals (along the Niagara River, narrow lakes and canals in Canada, Syracuse, etc).
No Way should a coach take rowing shells with anyone let alone kids out into LIS this time of year with such cold water temps, and with wind/chop. The coach should be fired for very poor judgement, risk to minors and also be sued personally and club/school by the 27 members of the rowing team (24 rowers and 3 coxswains), and those in the coach boat that was swamped.
I started wearing my Astral YTV PFD while fishing on my 24 foot seaway HTS. I’m a good swimmer and freedive spearfish. I however do not swim well if unconscious. The YTV is very comfortable and cost $140, never needs service, and I wear it. When I whitewater kayaked you had to wear a pfd. No one but the squirt boaters even gave it a thought. I have two inflatables that are available for guest, if they can’t swim or under 12 pfds are mandatory. I fish anywhere from inshore to 50 mile out and had a good friend loose his son at sea, never found a body. I don’t want to do that to my family!
I know Chris and his dad very well. Very, very sad. I'm afraid to find out the names of the others, I probably know them too. Grim.
While there's no excuse for hauling ass in the dark, the DEEP saying the wall is well marked is bs. People run up on that damn wall every year, lucky there aren't more fatalities. It's especially hazardous for boats coming from the SE, you can see two lighthouses and a bell but the wall lurks in the dark. These guys were supposedly at a wedding on block.
Does anyone know? Did that Boat completely go over the wall to the other side? According to what I read they found that Boat over in front of Harbor 1 marina, been in that River many times and the information doesn’t make sense to me?